The present invention relates generally to the processing of shrimp, seafood, and meat products. Stated more particularly, disclosed and protected by the present patent is a method for forming larger shrimp, seafood, and meat products by coupling plural smaller products and to the resulting larger products formed by that method.
One knowledgeable in the art of food processing techniques will be well aware that larger food products often have higher value per unit weight than their smaller counterparts. The higher value of larger food products of course derives from their being more desirable to consumers. Although this is true of a number of meats and types of seafood, possibly nowhere else is the value differential more pronounced than relative to shrimp, which of course is a most popular seafood delicacy. Accordingly, the present discussion will focus primarily on the processing of shrimp with it being explicitly noted that the invention is equally applicable to a plurality of other food products.
As the astute reader may surmise from the foregoing, shrimp are commercially available in a wide range of sizes. They are commonly sorted into groups of similar size and then sold according to the number of shrimp required to form one pound of the seafood product. This number is commonly referred to as the count of the shrimp. At one end of the spectrum, shrimp as small as in the 500 count range have been found to be commercially useful while fully-grown tropical shrimp weighing one-third of a pound effectively establish the opposite end of the spectrum.
Although shrimp defining these ends of the spectrum are available, shrimp are most commonly commercially sold ranging from roughly a 16 count to approximately a 150 count. Shrimp between a 30 count and a 150 count typically are sold for normal consumption. However, shrimp in the 16 count to 25-count range are normally considered xe2x80x9cJumboxe2x80x9d shrimp such that they are considered a particular delicacy. With this, the Jumbo shrimp are exceptionally desirable to consumers. Disadvantageously, Jumbo and other larger size shrimp are significantly less common than their smaller counterparts. This is true relative to ocean caught specimens and also relative to those raised in shrimp farms. Taken in combination with their natural desirability, the rarity of larger and Jumbo-sized shrimp causes them to merit a premium price per unit weight.
As one would expect in light of the added value per unit weight of larger shrimp and their relative rarity as compared to smaller shrimp, a number of inventors have endeavored to craft larger shrimp or shrimp-simulating structures often from plural smaller shrimp and sometimes from other food products. Although their methods and resulting products have differed widely, these inventors have worked toward the common goal of increasing the value per unit weight of smaller shrimp or other food product by simulating or roughly approximating larger shrimp of a lower count.
One common type of prior art method for forming larger shrimp has begun by first grinding small shrimp product or other food product into a coarse or fine paste. Then, the ground product is extruded or formed into a simulation of a larger shrimp. The 1990 U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,957 to Ikeuchi et al. may be considered exemplary of such processes. There, minced fish material is injected into a split mold that has a cavity in the shape of a shelled shrimp. Then, a V-shaped device makes a longitudinal groove in the minced fish material. Finally, the mold and the material are heated to yield the shrimp-shaped food product.
Unfortunately, shrimp-shaped products formed according to such methods suffer from a number of shortcomings. As one might expect, the resulting product, although having a shape similar to that of a large shrimp, has a markedly different texture than solid shrimp that makes its composition easily discernible and often tactilely offensive. Furthermore, the shrimp-shaped products typically have a significantly different appearance than solid shrimp because, for example, the separate minced pieces can be visually perceived unless the shrimp-shaped product is prepared in a breading or the like. Still further, such molding or extruding processes can not practically produce a tail-on shrimp where, as its name would suggest, the actual tail is left on the shrimp.
A second method commonly practiced by the prior art has been to couple two or more pieces of shrimp together to create a larger mass of shrimp that arguably belongs to a class of lower count shrimp. One such method was disclosed by Kou in U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,938. There, Kou taught making a composite seafood product by assembling plural smaller bufferflied shrimp, with all but one being tailless, into a structure resembling a single, large butterflied shrimp. The resulting structure can then be battered and fried to obscure the fact that plural smaller shrimp have been joined. Corser et al. discloses another representative method in U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,558 wherein a centerpiece substrate shrimp with its tail on and cut into a butterfly configuration is surrounded by a second shrimp in the shape of a ring.
Disadvantageously, the larger products produced by these types of methods also exhibit a number of shortcomings. For example, such processes typically demand that the shrimp to be coupled be cut into a butterfly configuration such that the resulting shrimp can not be prepared to simulate larger shrimp of other configurations such as shell-on tail wherein only the head is removed from a shrimp or peeled round where the shell is removed from the tail. Just as importantly, such processes yield products that, although they comprise a larger resulting structure, do not have the appearance of an actual large shrimp. For example, unless the resulting structure is battered and fried or otherwise coated, the multiple different smaller shrimp can be readily perceived by a consumer as being separate pieces. This is particularly true since the joined shrimp typically have different muscular orientations.
Also, the shapes of the resulting structures often bear little resemblance to the shapes of actual larger shrimp. Additionally, the resulting products normally must be blast frozen to maintain their configuration and then must be cooked prior to thawing to prevent their coming apart. Even further still, cutting the component shrimp into the necessary configurations results in appreciable losses in food product. Yet further, the relative sizes of the component shrimp must be chosen carefully for the process to be possible. Finally, such processes typically require specialized equipment including, most basically, specialized trays and the like.
In light of the foregoing discussion relative to the art of shrimp processing, it becomes clear that there remains a need for an improved method for creating larger shrimp and other food products from a plurality of smaller shrimp or other food products. Indeed, one skilled in the art will appreciate that a method for processing shrimp and other food products that provides a solution to each of the abovedescribed deficiencies exhibited by the prior art while demonstrating a number of heretofore unrealized advantages thereover would comprise a marked advance in the art.
Advantageously, the present invention sets forth with the broadly stated object of meeting the needs left by the prior art while providing a number of heretofore unrealized advantages thereover.
Stated more particularly, a most basic object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for forming larger shrimp, seafood, and meat products by coupling plural smaller products and to the resulting larger products formed by that method.
A more particular object of the invention has been to provide a process and product thereof that yields a larger shrimp from plural smaller shrimp that is essentially imperceptibly different in appearance, texture, and taste as compared to an actual larger shrimp.
An underlying object of the invention is to increase the value per unit weight of shrimp products by converting shrimp of a relatively high count range to shrimp of a lower count range.
A further object of the invention is to provide a process and resulting product that accomplishes the foregoing objects relative to shrimp prepared in a number of different methods including butterflied, peeled round, and headless, shell-on.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a product and a process for forming that product that can be carried out in an efficient and cost effective manner with little or no waste.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a product and a process for forming larger food products that can be employed with constituent components of substantially any relative size relationship.
One should note that these and still further objects and advantages of the present invention would be obvious not only to one who has had an opportunity to review the present disclosure but also to one who has an opportunity to experience a product deriving from the present invention.
In accomplishing these objects, one most basic embodiment of the invention comprises a butterflied larger shrimp product formed from plural smaller food products. The larger shrimp product is founded on a mother shrimp with a proximal end and a distal end prepared in a butterfly configuration by a dorsal butterfly slit along a portion of a centerline of the mother shrimp wherein the mother shrimp has a first butterfly half disposed on an opposite side of the centerline from a second butterfly half. A distal portion of the centerline is split, and at least a distal portion of the first and second butterfly halves are separated from one another to form an open area. A first child product is disposed in the open area between the first and second butterfly halves and is joined with the mother shrimp. With this, the mother shrimp and first child product are joined in a coplanar arrangement and the mother shrimp and the first child product together form a butterflied larger shrimp.
The first child product could be crafted from a number of materials including a shrimp product that has been prepared in a butterfly configuration with first and second butterfly halves coupled along a centerline. In such a case, the centerline of the first child product preferably will be generally aligned with the centerline of the mother shrimp. To achieve still larger resulting shrimp, the first child product could be supplemented by second and possibly further child shrimp.
The open area between the first and second butterfly halves of the mother shrimp could have the shape of a wedge of a given size. Also, the first child product could comprise a wedge-shaped product with a size approximately equal to the size of the open area between the first and second butterfly halves. In certain embodiments, the first child product could be quasi-T-shaped with first and second legs and a wedge-shaped base. The base could comprise the wedge-shad product disposed between the first and second butterfly halves, and the first and second legs of the quasi-T-shaped first child product could overly the distal ends of the first and second butterfly halves of the mother shrimp. With this, the resulting food product will have not only a length but also a width that is greater than those of the original mother shrimp.
The mother shrimp and the first and any other child products preferably are joined by an edible binder or bonding agent. The edible binder or bonding agent can be chosen from the group consisting of guar gum, locust bean gum, Carrageenan gum, pectin, gum arabic, gum acacia, agar, cellulose derivatives such as carboxymethyl cellulose, cornstarch, potato starch, wheat starch, tapioca, egg albumen, cereals, dextrose, heat-coagulable proteins, thrombin mixed with black plasma (fibrinogen), which is commonly sold under the trademark FIBREMIX by FNA Foods, Inc. of Calgary, Canada, water, alginates, and a combination of thrombin and blood plasma.
One must note that the present method is also applicable to non-butterflied shrimp. For example, a single larger shrimp can be prepared in a peeled-round configuration by first preparing the mother shrimp by de-heading, de-veining, and de-shelling except for its tail and then leaving the mother shrimp in the round. A first child shrimp is similarly prepared except that its tail is removed. The distal end of the mother shrimp is then cut to create a first angled surface, and the proximal end of the first child shrimp is cut to a second angled surface. Ideally, the first and second angled surfaces are cut to complementary angles such that the mother and first child shrimp are property aligned end to end as would be the case with an actual larger shrimp. With this, the mother and first child shrimp properly cooperate in an end-to-end relationship as first and second complementary shrimp segments respectively. Again, the mother and first child shrimp could be supplemented by additional children shrimp.
Even further, the present invention could be applied to headless, shell-on shrimp. In such a case, a mother shrimp, preferably frozen, is prepared by being de-headed but left with substantially the entire shell on. However, a distal volume of shrimp meat is exposed as during the removal of the head of the mother shrimp or by the removal of the distal-most shell segment of the mother shrimp. Then, the distal end of the mother shrimp is cut to form a cone of shrimp meat. The first child shrimp, preferably frozen, is prepared by first de-heading and de-tailing a second shrimp and then forming a conical depression in the proximal end of the first child shrimp. Then, the mother shrimp is joined with the first child shrimp by a binder or bonding agent to establish a mutually complementary relationship. Further child shrimp can be added. Preferably, the mother and the first and any further child shrimp are chosen to have progressively increasing size whereby the realistic appearance of a single larger shrimp is further improved. However, it should be clear that, although a cone-shaped mating arrangement presently seems preferable, it is well within the scope of the invention to craft the mother and child shrimp with other mating arrangements. A primary goal is to provide an increased area of surface contact between the mother and child shrimp thereby to enabling a secure bonding therebetween.
One will appreciate that the foregoing discussion broadly outlines the more important features of the invention to enable a better understanding of the detailed description that follows and to instill a better appreciation of the inventor""s contribution to the art. Before an embodiment of the invention is explained in detail, it must be made clear that the following details of construction, descriptions of geometry, and illustrations of inventive concepts are mere examples of the many possible manifestations of the invention.